Reflecting on Hawaii - Dolphin Quest & Happy Hour - Day 3

Our daily recap from exactly a week ago... a selfish way to relive the vakay! Tuesday, 5.14.13

There is nothing like be woken up on vacation by a rustling in the bushes just outside your window... a loud rustling... what kind of animal is it... will they get through the screen door. Wait. The noise is coming from outside the window behind the bed... you quietly peek out the window to discover what critter is making all the racket. Ferret? Dog? Goat? or how about a turkey family! It was a momma turkey and 4 chicks making all the ruckus.

Another chill morning at the Puako house until we headed to the Queen's Marketplace at Waikoloa for lunch. Last time I was in Hawaii there were only the King Shops... now there are the Queen's Marketplace and tons of new housing/apartment developments. It never ceases to amaze me how they can develop entire resorts in lava fields.

We then headed to the Hilton Waikoloa for our afternoon plan of swimming with dolphins at Dolphin Quest. This was a trip down memory lane for me as I moved to the Big Island 15 years ago to work at Dolphin Quest as a trainer. It was great to see how much the facility has changed over the years. There is a new education building that I would have loved to have taught at back in the day. As we were getting ready for our program one of the trainers, Ashley,  came up and introduced herself. She told me that she interviewed me for a school project when I was a trainer and decided then that someday she would be a dolphin trainer. And here she was after a lot of work and perseverance living her dream. She then told me that we were going to be getting in the water with Kai who was one of my favorite dolphins when I was there. The combination of the 2 reduced me to tears.... super emotional.

I then got to share this special part of my life with my friends as we all got to play with Hali'a and Kai. Carla, one of my close friends, was our trainer and we had a great time. It was super fun and I love that fact that I will never take this part of my life for granted and love the animals just as much to day as I did then. Dolphin Quest does a great job educating and inspiring people through their programs.

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We figured what better way to end the day than sunset in Kona over tiki drinks. Paul had been talking about a trip to Don's Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Kona Resort since we bought our tickets. Happy hour started with a round of mai tais and pupus. There may have been a flight of mai tais, lava flows and some other tiki libations. An evening rain storm tried to scare us off the lanai to no avail.

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Another perfect end to a great day in paradise.

Reflecting on Hawaii - Mauna Kea - Day 2

The AdventurUs recently went on vacation... no really just a good old fashion vacation. No epic climbs planned, no training or certification required... just sunscreen, bathing suits and friends. We will be posting a daily recap from exactly a week ago... a selfish way to relive the vakay! Monday, 5.13.13

Another day in paradise. As tempting as it was to stay at the Puako house we motivated to go hang out at another beach.  We decided upon the big beach at the Mauna Kea Resort just up the road. Ian and Natalia headed first to Honokaa to Tex Drive In for their famous Malasadas and met us at the beach.

The beach was beautiful, the water perfect and the weather stunning. We snorkeled, swam, napped, chatted, swam the bay and burned our feet running across the sand to the hotel's beach bar.

It was a rough day... followed by a rough evening of mai tais and dinner at the Seafood Bar & Grill  in Kawaihae. My Island Salad with the Calamari Steak was quite good, but my drink - the Polynesian Punch - was much too sweet. The Mai Tai's that the others ordered were MUCH better. Kawaihae has an active harbor and serves as the turn off point to get to North Kohala. Aside from the harbor, there are a few food options, a farmers market, gas station and supposedly some of the best music on the island at the Blue Dragon. Unfortunately the Blue Dragon is closed Mon-Wed so we will just have to come back to check out what all the fuss is.

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Reflecting on Hawaii - Puako & Ohana - Day 1

The AdventurUs recently went on vacation... no really just a good old fashion vacation. No epic climbs planned, no training or certification required... just sunscreen, bathing suits and friends. We will be posting a daily recap from exactly a week ago... a selfish way to relive the vakay! Sunday, 5.12.13

Ohana at Puako. Our first day at the Puako house we woke up to an amazing view of the ocean right off our lanai. We wandered to the beach where we say our first sea turtle napping in the sun.

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The plan was to hangout at the house and for local friends to come over in the afternoon. We headed up to Waimea for a quick trip to the grocery store for some poke and misc food for the house.

Most of the day was spent just enjoying the house... until my Hawaii ohana (family) started coming  over. It had been 7 years since my last visit and I had only met 2 of my friends' keikis (kids). It was amazing to have friends old and new all hanging out and watching all the kids running around playing. In some ways it seemed like no time had passed.

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It was the perfect start to a great week... daily recaps to follow.

Coming home to Hawaii

The thick heavy air is like a welcome blanket being wrapped around you. You know as soon as you step off the plane you are in Hawaii. I'm always worried when I come back that everything will be different... that I won't recognize anything. Things have definitely changed, but from a quick glance much remains the same. I was so excited at LAX that I was asked twice if this was my first time going to Hawaii. My impulse is to say no I'm excited to be going home, but then I realize that seems silly. It has been 13 years since I moved back to the mainland and I only lived on the Big Island for 2 years and yet there is something about those years that I hold dear to my heart. Those years were ones that shaped my life and who I am. The happy home... The best roommates... Brothers and sisters really... Dr. Happy... Memories that make this feel like home.

We are staying at an awesome house in Puako, but arrived at night so I'm excited to see it all in the morning. As I write the geckos are laughing at me, the"giant Hawaiian flies", aka cockroaches, are sneaking around not so sneakily and the ocean outside our room is making me sleepy.

Good night!

Pre-Whitney Shenanigans

We arrived in Lone Pine, CA this afternoon in preparation for the start of our Summit For Someone climb of Mt Whitney. About 5 minutes after arriving our teammates Roseann and Liane picked us up and we headed to the trail head to check it out. The road was open all the way up which is a good sign. The weather is cold but clear. We then headed back down to the Alabama Hills to play on some rocks then headed to the Pizza Factory for lunch.

Back to the hotel to rest and do last minute prep. Then back to the Mt Whitney Restaurant for dinner with our team. It was the first time we have all met in person and it was super fun to start to get to know each other.

We will be posting updates from the trail to our FB page via our Delorme inReachSE satellite device! Like our page to follow our adventure real time. www.facebook.com/theadventurus

Sierra Club Wilderness Travel Course Snow Camp - 2013

After 10 weeks of weekly classes and 3 weekend trips our WTC class was ready to tackle snow camping. Our final trip of the class is a 3 day - 2 night trip in the Eastern Sierras. This year we were at Rock Creek which is between Bishop and Mammoth. Everyone did an amazing job. Spirits stayed high as we hiked at elevation with heavy winter packs. Everyone was well prepared and managed to stay warm through the weekend. We were able to practice our snow travel and navigation skills and enjoy the beautiful weather. It was really an honor to get to know this wonderful group of people. Enjoy the pics!

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New Years at Joshua Tree

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="182,183,184,178,185,202,186,187,201,188,189,190,191,180,181,195,177,179,196,197,199,200,198,192,194,193"] Saveria and I had been planning New Year's starting six months ago when Saveria booked our favorite camp site at Joshua Tree National Park, in Indian Cove Campground. I'm leaving out the camp site numbers, because we don't want to give away everything. We invited our friends and the trip was set. We talked about it about once a week till the date finally arrived.

Saveria, her brother Sebastian and I went up early to set up and our great friend Bob joined us. The next morning we were joined by more of our friends and some new friends too. We woke to a beautiful day with a brilliant blue sky and set up some fun climbing routes. After doing a few climbs, we are in the desert just to remind everyone, it started to SNOW, only for a little but real flakes and the rock got pretty slippery not to mention we were freezing. We returned to our camp, built a giant fire and our friend Ian cooked us some spectacular chili.

The next day we set up some great routes near our site and everyone had a great time and did really well. The best part was that we had people of all experience levels and everyone was able to successfully climb a route or two proving that anyone can be AdventurUs!

After a long day of climbing I was tired and was deciding to celebrate east coast New Year's, but this was not allowed and I reluctantly stayed up till midnight. It was very cool because despite the strict noise code we could hear all the camp sites around the desert celebrate when the clock struck midnight. We even had neighbors come and serenade us with a ukulele and a song. One of the coolest things about Joshua tree is night-time with a full or mostly full moon. The way the light hits the rocks making them glow brightly and the sound the sand makes crunching under your feet all under the moonlight makes you feel like you are in a snowy winter wonderland.

This was Sebastian's first time at Joshua Tree NP, so we took the scenic route home and traveled through the main part of the park. We bought an annual National Park Pass good at all parks. I like to think of it as a challenge to visit enough National Parks this year to make it worth it!

It was great to be out in the desert, under the stars, with our friends having fun and laughing, I could not imagine a better end or start to the any year.

Oh...and Norman was with us too. Another great family adventure for The AdventurUs!

Machu Picchu, Looking Back on an Unforgettable New Year Adventure

We sit here looking to our future trips in the new year and I can't help remember a trip that kick started our adventures. Saveria and I were in the middle of training for Wildflower Long course triathlon with Oceanside 70.3 and Ironman Couer d' Alene on the horizon. We had gone into shut down mode...all training-all the time, no social life, just work and working out. One day Saveria got a call from our friend Mark and he asked if she wanted to hike the Inca Trail for New Years, Saveria answered with "Sure, if you do Wildflower with us." Both agreed and after a bit of convincing, I figured a week at altitude would help my cycling.

I had not hiked or backpacked since Boy Scouts, more than a few years ago at this point, but I decided to go along anyway, we borrowed most of the gear we needed, got stuck like a pin cushion at our local travel doctor and off we went.

We flew into Lima, then quickly on to Cusco where we had a couple days to rest, acclimate to the altitude, meet our guide, explore ruins and sites around the city and fall in love with coca tea. It was a bit of a rainy season, that comes into play later, but that just made it more beautiful.

The hiking part of the trip was 4 days and 3 nights finishing with a day at Machu Picchu and an optional second day for exploring the ruins. The first was a surprise to some in our group as our guide had told us that it was flat after many miles of hiking up hill we began to tease our guide that this was hardly flat. He kept insisting that it was flat. We came to realize in the coming days that by "flat" he meant the trail didn't have steps or rocks. Apparently hiking straight up hill could also be "flat" and after day the next few ays we would have to agree! On day 2, we hiked up and over a 14,000 ft. peak in rain and wind, I was warmed up by a sugar based spirit one of the porters made and kept in a water bottle. The way down the mountain to the next campsite could be described as a torrential down pour. Day 3 brought us up and over multiple passes and through some impressive ruins. There were steps, more steps, then some more steps... Keep in mind the steps are uneven, slippery, off kilter rocks making the trail a bit technical at times.

Our last night, New Years Eve, was spent at Winay Wayna, the terrace our tents were set up on would be washed completely away a few weeks later. We celebrated New Years Eve in the bar area that was set up, it was our group and about 100 other people from all over the world, it was a great experience. The next morning we made our way to the Sun Gate and we looked down to see a beautiful valley and a single cloud below, "Where is Machu Piccu?" I wondered and as I said that the wind picked up just so and the cloud moved on to reveal the city, it was pretty amazing. Couldn't have been planned better.

We spent the rest of that day waking around the ruins with our guide and then heading to the restaurants buffet where we ate and ate and ate. We boarded busses and headed down a crazy switchback road to Aquas Calientes for an hour long shower in the room of the posh spa we were staying at. The Inca Terra was heavenly after four days of hiking. The next day we returned to Machu Picchu and explored more before heading back to Cusco, then Lima, then home.

This trip was something I did not think I would do, Saveria and I encourage each other to get out of our comfort zone while supporting each other as well. It makes us a great team.